Australian regulator questions CoinSpot over AML/CTF compliance

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is investigating alleged illicit activity by a company whose owners are suspected of transferring investors’ funds into cryptocurrencies. The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

ASIC has suspected that the company A One Multi and its owners orchestrated an illegal investment scheme. отмечает the regulator, they urged clients to invest their pension payments in a self-managed fund, promising annual returns of more than 20%.

From 1 January 2019 to 30 June 2021, more than 60 clients invested about AUD 25 million (almost USD 18 million at the time of writing) into A One Multi’s accounts.

ASIC alleges that the owners used more than AUD 5.7 million (about USD 4.1 million) of these funds for personal use, including the purchase of property and cars in their name. They also purchased cryptocurrency with this money.

ASIC found that the suspects were buying Bitcoin through the local exchange CoinSpot. Initially, platform representatives told the regulator that there were no accounts for the owners of A One Multi, but later ASIC found CoinSpot accounts linked to one of them.

During the investigation, it emerged that the A One Multi owner’s account on the exchange received almost 376 BTC (over AUD 21 million at the time of writing), while cryptocurrency worth AUD 979,843 (about USD 704,000) was sold.

ASIC believes that the remaining cryptocurrency was moved to a cold wallet.

Against the backdrop of the investigation, the regulator questioned CoinSpot’s compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) measures.

Representatives of the exchange said that information relating to requests for client data “may require verification before it becomes available”. At the same time, such confidentiality requirements typically do not apply to regulator requests.

ASIC now expects the suspects to cooperate with the investigation and provide access to the cryptocurrency wallets to recover funds for investors.

In October, Australian authorities detained the alleged organisers of the scheme for money laundering $62 million through cryptocurrencies.

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